Vehicle-top.



L. C. SHIPLEY.

VEHICLE TOP.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.5, I9I6 1,279,922. I

Patented Se t. 24,1918.

orrrcn.

ram 1 LEWIS C. SHIPLEY, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

VEHICLE-TOP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 24, 1918.

Application filed August 5, 1916. Serial No. 113,215.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Lnwrs G. SHIPLEY, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of lsiichigan, have invented cer tain new and useful Improvements in Vehicle-Tops, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings. a

This invention relates to vehicle tops, and more particularly to that type of automobile top including a canopy supported and braced by a rear how, a front bow, a horizontal or outrigger bow, and an intermediate bow, said bows being associated with bow sockets, braces and instrumentalities which insure compactness when folded or collapsed and rigidity when extended or raised.

The object of this invention is to furnish vehicle top of the above type with novel break up braces supporting the horizontal or outrigger bow relative to the front bow, thereby relieving the back stays of a vehicle top and the windshield of considerable weight.

The above and other objects are attained by a mechanical construction that will be hereinafter described and then claimed, and reference will now be had to the drawings, wherein- Figure 1 is a side elevation of the vehicle top, partly broken away and partly in section, showing the top in an extended or raised position;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the top or bow sockets collapsed or folded;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a portion of the front bow or bow socket showing certain elements supported thereby;

Fig. t t is a side elevation, on a smaller scale, of a slight modification of my inwention, and

Fig. 5 is an elevation of another modification of my invention. 7

In the drawing, 1 denotes a portion of a vehicle body provided with a: front bow 2 and a rear bow 3, the front bow 2 being connected to the body in the usual and well known manner, and the rear how 3 connected to the front bow or to the body.

The front bow 2, adjacent the top thereof, has the front side thereof provided with hearing plates 4:, said bearing plates being brazed or otherwise secured to the front bow 2. The bearing plates 4: have the lower ends thereof provided with apertured lugs 5 and the inner sides of the upper ends of said bearing plates have side lugs 6. The

bearing plates 4 insure proper spacing of the lugs 5 and 6 and permit of said lugs being easily connected to the front bow 2, but it is to be noted that it is possible to provide the front bow 2 with the lugs 5 and 6 Without utilizing the bearing plates d.

Pivotally connected to the forwardly eX- tending lugs 5 are side arms 7 and connected to the forward ends of the side arms 7 by rule joints 8 or similar connections are the rear ends of a horizontal or outrigger how 9; the side arms 7 in reality being a prolongation of the sides of the horizontal bow.

livotally connected to the inner side of the horizontal how 9, contiguous to the rule joints 8, are break up braces composed of long links 10 and short links 11, the latter being pivotally connected as at 12, to the side lugs 6 of the bearing plates 4. The links 10 and 11 of each break up brace are pivotally connected together, as at 13, and the short links 11 have the forward ends thereof provided with lugs 1i extending over the long links 10, to prevent the braces breaking other than in a prescribed direction. As shown, the braces break up and the manner of articulating the long and short links is somewhat similar to rule joints.

Since the ends of the braces are connected to the inner sides of the front and horizontal bows, there is suflicient clearance for an intermediate bow 15, which has the ends thereof pivotally mounted, as at 16, on top of the arms 7.

By reference to Fig. 2, it will be observed that the front and rear bows 2 and 8 respectively can be lowered with the arms 7 folding on to the front how 2 and the horizontal and intermediate bows swinging downwardly practically into parallelism. The braces break up and lay at the inner sides of the bows and with these braces made of flat bars, all of the bows are compactly collapsed.

The bows 2, 3, 9 and 15 cotiperate in supporting a canopy or cover 17 and the arrangement of the bows is such as not to cut or injure the cover when collapsed or being raised or lowered.

I attach considerable importance to the fact that the horizontal or outrigger how 9 is supported independently of the intermediate bow 15 and that any tendency of the Q amaze horizontal bow to accidentally break down is resisted by the braces, which cooperate with the arms 7 in supporting bows 9 and 15. In using the term bows, it is to be understood that bow sockets and their appurtenant parts are meant, and that while one style of vehicle top has been shown, the principle involved in connection with the bows is applicable to other types of tops. Furthermore, that the bows and their parts are correctly proportioned and articulated to avoid cutting of the cover, binding of the joints and such precision in manufacture and assembly as tends to increase the cost of production.

v In Fig. 4 there is shown an inclined front bow 18 provided with arms, a horizontal bow, and braces such as shown in Fig. 1 and in Fig. 5 there are straight one-piece braces. All of the elements can be used on any bow, at any angle, by altering the length of the links of the break up braces or the length of the one-piece braces. While the links 10 and 11 may be used for other purposes, I depend principally on said links supporting the horizontal bow and assisting to raise and lower the same. The manner of pivoting the links has been found very durable, easy to construct, and to offer the least resistance in raising and lowering.

W hat I claim is A framework for vehicle tops comprising a front bow, a horizontal bow, arms pivotally connected to the front side of said front bow and to the rear ends of said horizontal bow and adapted to bodily swing downward into parallelism with said front how, an intermediate bow pivotally connected to said arms and adapted to swing upwardly in parallelism with said front how when said arms are swung downwardly, and break up braces at the inner sides of said intermediate bow composed of short and long links, the short links having the rear ends thereof pivotally connected to the inner sides of said front bow and adapted to 'eXtend upwardly at an angle at the inner sides of said intermediate bow when said framework is collapsed, said long links having the forward ends thereof connected to the inner sides of said horizontal bow forwardly of the pivotal connections between said arms and said horizontal bow.

In witness whereof I attach my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

LEWIS c. SHIPLEY.

Witnesses KARL H., BUTLER, ANNA M. Donn.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Uommissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

